Hi all! 

Welcome back! In November, we read We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer for The You’ll Read Too Bookclub! Spoilers ahead!

Quick Reminder: This month we are reading ‘The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon’ by Stephen King.

Today I’m going to give a quick plot summary, plus my overall star/scare-factor ratings. Then I will share the discussion topics and trivia questions. Please include all of your answers and opinions down below. I want to know exactly what you thought. I’ll also leave the answers to the trivia questions at the very bottom of the post. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

WE USED TO LIVE HERE BY MARCUS KLIEWER – NOVEMBER 2024

 PLOT SUMMARY

As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighbourhood. One day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands with his family, claiming to have lived there years before. He asks if it would be alright if he shows his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in. As soon as the strangers enter, uncanny and inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materialising in the basement. Even weirder, the family won’t leave. When Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. 

OVERALL STAR RATING 

5/5 stars! This is absolutely one of my favourite reads of 2024. It has been a long time since a book filled me with so much anxiety. I was screaming at the pages, hoping the lead character would hear and make different choices. Talk about a captivating read that hooked me from the very first page! It was terrifying beyond belief. The ending was so bleak and hopeless. I will be reading everything Marcus puts out moving forward. For a debut novel, it is a masterpiece. 

OVERALL SCARE-FACTOR RATING

I gave it a scare-factor rating of 5/5. As mentioned above, this book is downright horrifying. I felt so full of dread the entire time I was reading it. I kept expecting the worst and rightfully so, given what ended up happening! There’s a scene where the lead character visits her neighbour. Nothing really happens, but it’s implied that if she stays any longer, things will get real very quickly. That alone got me. If nothing frightens you anymore, I am certain this novel will. 

DISCUSSION TOPICS 

1.)  Who was the real evil in this story? The house or the child of Thomas Faust? Explain

This question stayed with me long after the book ended. It’s a chicken or the egg situation. Did Thomas infuse the house with his evil, or was the house already evil, causing Thomas to become the same? I would say it was the child that was the real big bad. He had an inherent darkness within him; bleeding throughout the rooms of the house and the people that lived there over the years. 

2.)  Could Eve have avoided becoming Emma or was she doomed the minute she moved in? Explain.

The only way she could’ve avoided everything, was to never have moved there to begin with! She was doomed long before Thomas arrived. It was her presence in the house that called him to pay a visit and by then, it was all over for her. 

3.)  At what point did the real Charlie become the fake Charlie? 

I believe she became the fake Charlie the minute she left the house after Thomas arrived. She claimed she had to go into town but clearly that never happened. She was already long gone by then. There is also a theory she became the fake Charlie when she went into the house one last time to gather her things, but I’m saying it goes back farther than that. 

TRIVIA QUESTIONS 

Easy: What was the name of Eve and Charlie’s dog?

Medium: What part of the house does Eve notice changes first?

Hard: What was the name of Elijah Faust’s metal band? 

I hope you enjoyed the book club discussion. As mentioned above, share all of your thoughts in the comments below! If you have any feedback/suggestions to improve the book club, please let me know. I look forward to talking to you all next month! Thanks for reading!

Peace & Love xoxo

TRIVIA ANSWERS: Easy: Shylo. Medium: Window. Hard: Ring of Eyes.